Well, I'm a week behind on this blog. I ran a 5k this morning but have yet to give my report for last week's race. My fifth half marathon for the year was in nearby Wooster, the Heart & Sole Community Run. I had the added bonus of running it with a good friend so that was pretty cool!
This race had a very early start of 7:30. Love it. Why can't every race start early? Plus, it was unseasonably cool for mid-August with temps around the low 50s at the start of the race. The GPS on my watch was malfunctioning, so I will not be reporting specific times on this one. Let's keep it short and sweet despite my surprising effort.
We started out in the downtown area and ran north through some upscale neighborhoods. My friend and I started out at a conservative pace because we weren't quite sure how bad the hills would be. Wooster is very hilly so we planned accordingly. There were paces for this small race and we tucked in with the 1:55 pace team. I wanted to hang out there for the first 3-4 miles and see how I felt. We encountered a few longer hills but they really weren't that bad. More of a nice change of pace, really. The pacer let us know we were around the 26 minutes at the 3 mile mark. That's right where I wanted to start and I felt great. I started picking up my pace in the hope of catching up to the 1:50 pace group.
We kept running through residential areas and hit a few more hills. I knew by looking at the elevation chart prior to the race that the worst hills were over in the first half. I'm just guessing that I was running a lot of 7:30-7:40 miles midway through the race. We did hit one dull portion by making our way around a huge park. It was right out in the open, flat, and the sun was starting to warm things up. This was around the 7-8 mile mark. We then made our way back towards the downtown area. I kept my pace around 7:30 (guessing) and focused on running a sub-1:50, if not a sub-1:45.
The last three miles or so were net downhill and a really great opportunity to make up some time. Seriously, I felt great throughout the entire race. I noticed I was passing quite a few people over the last mile or two. The downtown area came into view and I kept pushing, crossing the line in a great time of 1:43:52. This is only the third time I've broken 1:45! Not too bad for a non-goal race.
My strategy this year of doing less mileage and more intensity is working wonders. My half time is consistently strong now and I'm hoping for a couple opportunities to break my PR. I followed this race up with a local 5k.
Next race: Banking on a Cure 5k- Mansfield, OH
No comments:
Post a Comment